And Now, the Chi-Coms
By Mark R. Levin

I expect another slur will be invoked to characterize those of us who believe in national security and don’t much like the idea of a Communist Chinese-related company screening containers in the Bahamas headed for U.S. ports. Maybe Sinophobia?

These Securophobes, as I’ll call them, don’t much care who’s involved in ensuring our safety. It was only five years ago when Red China detained an American flight crew after a mid-air collision between a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet, creating an international stand-off. They stripped the technology from the plane before returning it. That should give us great confidence.

China’s military build-up is considered a direct threat to the U.S. and U.S. interests. And even less than a decade ago, retired military officers and the public generally opposed China running both ends of the Panama Canal, for which Bill Clinton was harshly criticized. No less a patriot than the late Admiral Thomas Moorer, a favorite of Ronald Reagan’s, considered China our deadliest enemy and fought against its involvement in port operations.

The advocates of the UAE deal argued, among other things, that the UAE would not be handling security. While this was not accurate, for argument’s sake I’ll stipulate to it. Clearly, however, in this case, the Chinese would be responsible for security, including scanning U.S. bound cargo for radiation that might be emitted by plutonium or a radiological weapon. And while the Chinese company (Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.) is a Hong Kong corporation, so what? Its chairman has close ties to top Communist dictators and the Chinese military. Like everything else in China, the company answers to the government. At one point, our government concluded that the company was a potential threat for illegal arms shipments. Today it claims otherwise. And in an apparent act of Sinophobia, three years ago the Bush administration blocked the company from purchasing Terry McAuliffe’s favorite telecommunications corporation — Global Crossing.

Call me old-fashioned, but I consider the Communist regime in China a very serious national-security threat. Last time I checked, so do the Tibetans, South Koreans, Japanese, Taiwanese, Indians, Australians, and others. I guess they’re Sinophobic, too. There are a lot of countries, and companies from countries, that I don’t think should be involved in operating various aspects of our ports/terminals or screening our cargo for possible weapons of mass destruction before they are shipped to our cities. Here’s a partial list — and I wonder if our Securophobe friends would have any objections with these governments: Libya, Syria, Iran, Algeria, Cameroon, Togo, Uganda, Djibouti, Gambia, Congo Brazzaville, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad, Guinea, Congo Kinshasa, Burma, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and so forth. These are all dangerous dictatorships of one form or another.

Now, if you oppose these countries, or companies from these countries, operating any aspect of cargo inspections or port operations, why is that? Is it because you’re a protectionist? An isolationist? A racist? Uninformed?

Maybe to prove that we’re not any of these things, we should just turn over cargo inspections and port security to the United Nations. What better way to endear ourselves to the rest of the world and encourage trade, right?

But I do admit that I’m perplexed about something. The Bush administration just rejected a computer deal with our closest Middle East ally, and the only democracy in that region — Israel. AP reports today:

A leading Israeli software company failed to resolve security objections by the Bush administration over its plans to buy a smaller U.S. technology rival and abruptly abandoned the $225 million deal.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. of Ramat Gan, Israel, withdrew its plans Thursday near the conclusion of a rare, full-blown investigation by a U.S. review panel over the company’s plans to buy Sourcefire Inc.

Check Point had been told U.S. officials feared the transaction could endanger some of government’s most sensitive computer systems.

More here.

Surely the Securophobes will accuse the Bush administration of anti-Semitism, won’t they? Maybe the Israelis should look into the port-security and management business. After all, the standards are pretty low these days.